Eric's Beijing Diary

Yesterday afternoon, I met an American chef from Shanghai who has recently moved to Guiyang. He said he could not stand the summers in Shanghai. If they are anything like the summers in Beijing, I don't blame him. But I don't stay in Beijing in the summer. In his line of work, he probably didn't have a choice. At any rate, he told me he just decided he had had enough. He is busy getting ready to open a restaurant here in Guiyang, but he took time to give me some tips on where to find really good Guizhou food. Ordering Guizhou food is not that easy if you're not a local person. There is an art to cooking, but there is also an art to ordering. One thing I do know, and that is that Guizhou people like spicy food. Sichuan, Guizhou, Hunan..you can expect to find lots of spicy dishes in those areas. Oh, I left out Chongqing. Can't forget Chongqing, the source of the Chongqing hotpot. But I have always thought of Chongqing as part of Sichuan Province, so I sometimes forget to mention it. Chongqing is now like Beijing. It is a separate municipality. Sort of a province in and of itself. Similar to the "city" of Tokyo in Japan.